Incident Occurred Without Premeditation In A Sudden Fight, Heat Of Passion & Sudden Quarrel: SC Alters Conviction U/S 302 IPC To S 304 Part I IPC

The Supreme Court altered the conviction of an accused from Section 302 IPC to Section 304 Part I IPC noticing that the incident occurred without premeditation, in a sudden fight, in the heat of passion and upon a sudden quarrel.

The Court was deciding a criminal appeal preferred against the judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court by which it dismissed his appeal and upheld the order of conviction and sentence of the Trial Court.

The three-Judge Bench comprising Justice B.R. Gavai, Justice Aravind Kumar, and Justice Sandeep Mehta said, “It is thus clear that the incident occurred without premeditation, in a sudden fight, in the heat of passion and upon a sudden quarrel. The evidence would also not show that the accused-Appellant had either taken undue advantage or acted in a cruel or unusual manner. We therefore find that the present case would fall under Exception 4 to Section 300 of the IPC.”

AOR Jay Kishor Singh appeared on behalf of the appellant/convict while Deputy Advocate General Shekhar Raj Sharma appeared on behalf of the respondent/State.

Brief Facts -

In 2005, an FIR was registered for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the appellant (convict). Subsequently, the post mortem of the deceased was conducted wherein it was concluded that the cause of death was shock due to massive haemorrhage in the left plural cavity which was sufficient to cause death under normal circumstances. As per the prosecution case, when the complainant was having food at a Dhaba, a group of four men including the deceased arrived there to partake their meals. To attract the attention of the waiter, the deceased called the waiter by use of the word ‘hello’ and this gesture irked another customer i.e., the appellant (convict), who was smoking a cigarette.

He initially abused the deceased in the name of his sister and thereafter, rose from his seat, walked up to him, and grappled with him. During the quarrel, the convict and deceased went out of Dhaba where they were separated by the complainant and his companions, but refusing to relent, the convict rushed to his car and pulled out a glass bottle which he broke on the bonnet of his car. Thereafter, he proceeded to inflict five injuries on the deceased’s body, due to which he fell to the ground bleeding, after which the convict fled from the scene. Hence, a case was registered and the Trial Court convicted the appellant under Section 302 IPC and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for life along with a fine of Rs. 10,000/-. The High Court affirmed the same and hence, being aggrieved by this, the appellant approached the Apex Court.

The Supreme Court in view of the facts and circumstances of the case observed, “From the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses themselves, it would reveal that there is no premeditation. The incident occurred since the appellant believed that the utterances by deceased Vikrant @ Chintu were aimed at him and, therefore, he retaliated by abusing the deceased. This was followed by a heated exchange between them. They grappled out of the building of the Dhaba. Though the witnesses were successful in separating them, the accused-Appellant rushed to his car, pulled out a bottle from the driver’s seat side, broke it on the bumper of the car and attacked the deceased.”

The Court, therefore, altered the conviction of the appellant under Section 302 IPC to one under Part I of Section 304 IPC and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for a period of 8 years and a fine of Rs. 5,000/-.

Accordingly, the Apex Court partly allowed the appeal.

Cause Title- Mohd. Ahsan v. State of Haryana (Neutral Citation: 2024 INSC 338)

Appearance:

Appellant: AOR Jay Kishor Singh, Advocates Mohit Raj, Hemant Sharma, and Deepak Mishra.

Respondent: DAG Shekhar Raj Sharma, Advocate Nidhi Narwal, AOR Samar Vijay Singh, Advocates Keshav Mittal, Sabarni Som, Surajit Paul, Shashi Singh, and Mom Banerjee.

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